Low investment business: Customers Are Better Investors Than VCs.

Now notice what he needed before any of that worked, because it wasn't credibility and it wasn't a deck. He had to know precisely what those agents were suffering from. So what do the people you have in mind actually suffer from? Everything else followed from that one piece of knowledge, and you either have it about somebody or you don't.

From chapter 4: Customers are better investors than vcs

This is not an outlier. Ethan Mollick studied more than forty-eight thousand crowdfunded projects worth over two hundred and thirty-seven million dollars between them, and published what he found in the Journal of Business Venturing in 2014. Around five per cent never delivered what they'd promised. And of the projects that got funded, only a quarter delivered on time. Three out of four were late. In later work Mollick put outright non-delivery at roughly nine per cent, with a plausible range from five to fourteen, so somewhere between one project in twenty and one in seven simply kept the money and produced nothing. Read that again before you promise anybody a date.

From chapter 4: Customers are better investors than vcs

That is how the book looks at “low investment business”: one idea at a time, with a step you can take right away. Of course, this is only one idea from the book. So, if this passage speaks to you, the full chapter goes further, and it ends with an exercise you can do the same evening.

In short, the book has 11 chapters, and each one ends with a practical exercise. Therefore, you can read it in order, or you can go straight to the part about “low investment business”.

1. The data that destroys the "need money" myth
2. What actually kills undercapitalised businesses
3. The bird in hand: you already have what you need
4. Customers are better investors than vcs
5. The first dollar
6. The float: how to get paid before you pay
7. Why you will price too low
8. The service to product pivot
9. Money you did not know existed
10. The growth loop
11. How many days you have left

Finally, you can get Customers Are Better Investors Than VCs: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent in the stores below. Because every title of this book shares the same text, you can simply pick the one you like best. Also, the book is available in 19 languages.

In addition, each title below highlights a different idea from the same book. So, pick the one that speaks to you.

• The First Dollar: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• I Want to Start a Business but I Don't Have Money
• The Float: How to Get Paid Before You Pay: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• Why You Will Price Too Low: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The Service to Product Pivot: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• Money You Did Not Know Existed: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The Growth Loop: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• How Many Days You Have Left: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The Data That Destroys the "Need Money" Myth: I Want to Start a Business but I Don't Have Money
• Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent: I Want to Start a Business but I Don't Have Money

See all 19 titles. Go to the book page.